My fiance and I are expecting our first child. Being a writer, I just had to share this adventure with you.

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Thursday, January 5, 2012

Glucose Tolerance Test.

This morning I had my glucose tolerence test. This is a test to see how my pancreas is taking care of the sugar that I consume and so is checking for my risk of gestational diabetes. I was ordered to do the 1 hour test. So I went in and had to drink a very sugary drink. There are multiple flavors, and I got the Lemon-Lime drink which tasted pretty good. It tasted like flat Sprite or 7Up ... but not the diet kind haha.

I wasnt allowed to eat before the test so I was very hungry and when I got the sugar rush a few minutes after finishing the drink I didnt feel very good. I felt just a little nauseated and started sweating. But that passed after just a few minutes and the rest of the 1 hour wait time was a breeze (I brought a book).
For that one hour period I was not allowed to eat or drink anything and I wasnt allowed to leave the lobby area. As the phlebotomist said, "Once you drink that I am putting you in time out." Hahaha. But it's good to make sure women taking the test dont try to consume anything. I did have the urge to gulp a bunch of water to get rid of that sugar high feeling and wash the syrupy after taste down ... so I guess being in time out was good, even for me.

Once the hour was over the phlebotomist took me to have my blood drawn. Of course the results arnt instantaneous but I am sure that Dr. Samawi will discuss my results with me at my appointment next week. Dr. Samawi said that I have been so on track with my weight gain and have been staying very healthy that my risk should be very low. But because there is both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in my family it's always a good idea just to check. While every pregnant woman has to do this glucose test, we will be checking me due to my family history.

On the off chance that there are any abnormalities in my test results, I will be sent back to do a more extensive three hour test. As far as I know, its the same test with the glucose drink, but they draw blood multiple times over the three hours to see where the problem lies. So we shall see what happens after I see Dr. Samawi next week :)

The first thing I did after I had my blood drawn was gulp some water and go home to eat! And now I am feeling much better and less like I just ate an entire bag of swedish fish for breakfast :)

3 comments:

When I did my phlebotomy externship, I always felt so bad for the ladies doing the glucose test. Not only does that drink look NASTY, then you can't wash it down. One thing I'm not looking forward to in pregnancy, but its worth it. Only advice I could give you on the off chance that you have to do the 3 hour test, try to get in there as early as possible so its a little less painful to get through the hunger. Love you girly! You're such a good Mommy!